Food Review: Omar's Gyro

With nothing tempting playing in theaters at the moment, Movie Buddy Numero Uno Melissa and I decided last night to watch Spider-Man (which she’d never seen before) after grabbing gyros at Omar’s Gyro, just a couple of doors down from Wick’s Pizza on Baxter in Louisville.

Best gyros ever.

When we got there, the place was hopping. A mom and two kids, a table of four hipsters and a lady who ordered five gyros to go were all ahead of us, so it took a while to get our gyros. They were worth the wait.

I got the Traditional Beef and Lamb gyro, served on a fresh, toasted pita with grilled onions, tomatoes and romaine lettuce. Gyro sauce was in a cup on the side. Omar — who looks so much like Jeffrey Wright that I’m almost totally convinced he was Jeffrey Wright, perhaps preparing for Basquiat 2: The Art of the Gyro or Felix Leiter and the Lost Sandwich of Greece — sliced the lamb off of some kind of slowly spinning shank on a vertical rotisserie that looked like it should be in the gear box of a meat-powered helicopter.

The meat was perfectly seasoned, tender and lean. Better yet, there was a hearty ton of it crammed into the warm, tasty pita. The veggies were fresh, the onions were grilled to a tee and the gyro sauce made the whole thing come alive.

Melissa got the CQ gyro, which replaced the lamb with fresh chicken soaked in a delicious BBQ sauce. (When he brought out our gyros, he told us he toasted her pita just a little more so that the BBQ sauce didn’t make it soggy. Omar speaks the truth.)

There’s plenty of table seating inside with a few stools at the windows, but we ate at one of the two tables outside after the mom and two kids left. Beautiful day, amazing new food. What else do you need?

How about … fries! I got an order of Omar’s homemade fries, which are “cut fresh daily” and cost only a dollar. Delicious.

I can’t wait to go back again. Other interesting gyros on the menu are the Mediterranean (with mildly seasoned marinated chicken) and the Rasta, which is grilled chicken marinated in Caribbean jerk spices. All gyros are only $5.95. Omar also serves a veggie pita, falafel, hummus, baklava and a Greek salad.

I’m tempted to try one of the chicken gyros next time, but I want another lamb one so badly that I don’t know if I’ll be able to branch out.

Maybe I’ll just have two.

After eating we shot back over to Melissa’s apartment for Spider-Man. It had been a long time since I’d watched it; I usually watch the superior Spider-Man 2 instead. The first one is a little more cartoonish than I’d remembered, but it’s got a massive amount of heart and serves as a really beautiful introduction to the characters. Melissa enjoyed it, expressing particular admiration for the style, size and admirable heft of Willem Dafoe’s hair.